“For the secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for. Without a stable conception of the object of life, man would not consent to go on living, and would rather destroy himself than remain on earth, though he had bread in abundance.” –Dostoyevsky
Man could not continue living without a clear object or meaning to their life, unless they were too busy to realize they had no meaning. However, being too busy means that their object in life (for the time being) is to take out the trash, or to clean oneself, or to look at every detail on the design of the pillow to distract oneself from an angry conversation, homework, or a crying baby. Though only momentary, it is an object. Man cannot function without something to focus toward, even if their focus is to not focus.
Living with goals only moment by moment leave man feeling like he is hardly accomplishing anything. This is why most search for something larger, some meaning which ties them to life and ties them to continuing. If there is no larger meaning, why take out the trash?
ON IDENTITY
“What is identity but a mask?”
“Humans fool themselves to avoid death.”
Ozymandias
By Percy Shelley
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
